This narrative--the longest yet
given, by the way--has reference to the feeding of the fowls, on which
occasion the cock had really carried off a piece of bread. The doings of
animals in general excited the attention of the child greatly. He is
capable even of forgetting to eat, in order to observe assiduously the
movements of a fly. _Jetzt geht in die Zeitung--geht in die Milch!_
_Fort Thier! Geh fort! Unter den Kaffee!_ (Now he is going into the
newspaper--going into the milk! Away, creature! go away! into the
coffee!) His interest is very keen for other moving objects also,
particularly locomotives.
How little clearness there is in his conceptions of animal and machine,
however, appears from the fact that both are addressed in the same way.
When his father's brother comes, the child says, turning to his father,
_neuer_ (new) _Papa_; he has not, therefore, the slightest idea of that
which the word "father" signifies. Naturally he can have none. Yet
selfhood (Ichheit) has come forth at this period in considerably sharper
manifestation. He cries, _Das Ding haben! das will ich, das will ich,
das will ich, das Spiel moecht ich haben!_ (Have the thing! I want it, I
should like the game.) To be sure, when one says "komm, ich knoepfs dir
zu" (come, I will button it for you), the child comes, and says, as an
echo, _ich knoepfs dir zu_ (I will button it for you), evidently meaning,
"Button it for me"! He also confounds _zu viel_ (too much) with _zu
wenig_ (too little), _nie_ (never) with _immer_ (always), _heute_
(to-day) with _gestern_ (yesterday); on the contrary, the words _und_,
_sondern_, _noch_, _mehr_, _nur_, _bis_, _wo_ (and, but, still, more,
only, till, where) are always used correctly.
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